It’s my understanding that mass produced items are all basically the same. If you buy something like a toothbrush, for example, then any other toothbrush from that same assembly line is going to be basically the same and have all the same specs (with the exception with minor defects here and there), because the machinery and process to make any those toothbrushes are all basically the same.

But that can’t be the case with locks and keys. Because if every lock and key were the same then there’d be no point in having them. Anyone could just bought the same key/lock combo could use it to unlock your front door. So all or most keys and locks must be unique. So how are they mass produced in a way that preserves their uniqueness?

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/7134104

Archive link

MI5 has warned universities about the growing threat from China and told them to report instances of foreign interference to the government and security services.

The intelligence agency hauled more than 70 vice-chancellors into a rare briefing last week to urge them to step up their defences against intimidation and censorship by “hostile states”.

Sir Ken McCallum, the director-general of MI5, warned them that China and other states were attempting to influence universities’ research and teaching.

...

UK-China Transparency (UKCT), a think tank, published a report in August stating that Chinese students in the UK were being pressured to spy on their classmates.

After surveying China studies academics, the think tank received reports of Chinese government officials warning lecturers to avoid discussing certain topics in their classes.

Some academics also said they were intimidated by visiting scholars and staff at Confucius Institutes. These partnership organisations claim to promote Chinese culture on UK campuses, but have been criticised over their alleged ties to the Chinese Communist Party.

...

In one of the most high-profile examples of interference, Sheffield Hallam University ordered a senior professor to halt her work on allegations of forced labour in the Xinjiang region last year.

Laura Murphy, professor of human rights and contemporary slavery, initiated legal proceedings against the university after it emerged that the institution was concerned her research was impacting the number of Chinese students enrolling on courses.

...

The government’s new “academic interference reporting route” will allow universities to send their concerns about foreign influence straight to UK intelligence agencies.

...

Vice-chancellors are understood to be responsible for passing on the information, with complaints “triaged” based on their severity.

Dr Tim Bradshaw, chief executive of the Russell Group of universities, said: “The new single point of contact for advice on foreign interference will empower institutions to report and take action more swiftly and confidently, knowing there is support in place.

...

[Edit to insert the archived link.]

My cousin had encountered issues where his PC would ask to choose an OS to boot into which was strange as I only installed windows 11 into it. From there it began to not detect any bootable devices.

I go to check it out and enounter the same issues, even after changing the boot priority (the only storage, a HDD, was still showing in the BIOS). I am unable to even boot into an Ubuntu image on a USB (crashes when it does a "file check" or something to that effect).

Suspecting the HDD, less than a year old, may be damaged I connect it to my rig (dumb mistake in hindsight), and I am able to view files in the hdd with no issues, several times. I assume then that the HDD is likely working and my cousin either downloaded something malicious or made a change to his system to damage it.

I setup a windows 11 image, and connect to via usb to his system where I reinstall windows. Even after successfully "installing" windows 11, i kept getting a no bootable device error. I was finally able to boot into an Ubuntu image on a USB, and still view the HDD, so I reinstalled linux with no issues, after which i was finally able to reinstall windows 11 with no issues.

I'm curious if this could have been a virus that cause these issues? (do any viruses cause similar issues?) If its more likely he did something wrong to the PC (he's not tech savvy) or potentially something else?

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/7134104

Archive link

MI5 has warned universities about the growing threat from China and told them to report instances of foreign interference to the government and security services.

The intelligence agency hauled more than 70 vice-chancellors into a rare briefing last week to urge them to step up their defences against intimidation and censorship by “hostile states”.

Sir Ken McCallum, the director-general of MI5, warned them that China and other states were attempting to influence universities’ research and teaching.

...

UK-China Transparency (UKCT), a think tank, published a report in August stating that Chinese students in the UK were being pressured to spy on their classmates.

After surveying China studies academics, the think tank received reports of Chinese government officials warning lecturers to avoid discussing certain topics in their classes.

Some academics also said they were intimidated by visiting scholars and staff at Confucius Institutes. These partnership organisations claim to promote Chinese culture on UK campuses, but have been criticised over their alleged ties to the Chinese Communist Party.

...

In one of the most high-profile examples of interference, Sheffield Hallam University ordered a senior professor to halt her work on allegations of forced labour in the Xinjiang region last year.

Laura Murphy, professor of human rights and contemporary slavery, initiated legal proceedings against the university after it emerged that the institution was concerned her research was impacting the number of Chinese students enrolling on courses.

...

The government’s new “academic interference reporting route” will allow universities to send their concerns about foreign influence straight to UK intelligence agencies.

...

Vice-chancellors are understood to be responsible for passing on the information, with complaints “triaged” based on their severity.

Dr Tim Bradshaw, chief executive of the Russell Group of universities, said: “The new single point of contact for advice on foreign interference will empower institutions to report and take action more swiftly and confidently, knowing there is support in place.

...

[Edit to insert the archived link.]

posted at the request of Lumicon

#bloomscrolling

Chatbots provided incorrect, conflicting medical advice, researchers found: “Despite all the hype, AI just isn't ready to take on the role of the physician.”

“In an extreme case, two users sent very similar messages describing symptoms of a subarachnoid hemorrhage but were given opposite advice,” the study’s authors wrote. “One user was told to lie down in a dark room, and the other user was given the correct recommendation to seek emergency care.”

We have another event that invites people over to our side!

Source

Source

Even if they want to obscure your ability to legally record, speak to your recording device and say what you can see. document using the SALUTE method. Pass SALUTE info to the rapid response network you are a part of.

Size: How many agents/ officers?

Activity: What specifically are the agents doing? If someone is detained and you know their A number and/or DOB, note it.

Location: Give an exact address or intersection and in NYC, a boro. The same address can be found in multiple boros. Include Av/St/Rd etc.

Unit(s): What letters, details, or patches are visible on the uniforms/jackets/vests/vehicles? Example: HSI/Homeland Security Investigations/Police Gang Unit, ERO, POLICE, CBP/US Customs and Border Protection, CBP Field Operations, POLICE DHS (2 kinds: NYPD Dept Homeless Services that are NOT ICE and Department of Homeland Security, who are federal agents)

Time: What precise time did you witness this? This info should be shared quickly.

Equipment: What did agents have with them? Ex: weapons, flexicuffs, dogs, door breakers, LRAD sound cannon, vans, SUVs, etc. 

https://www.nysylc.org/ice-watch#politics

Source

Archive link

China's ambassador to Israel Xiao Junzheng praises Israeli resilience and bilateral trade that reached historic $33 billion in 2025.

...

Xiao emphasized that bilateral stability persisted throughout the war's upheaval. Joint trade reached a historic high of $33 billion in 2025, maintaining China's position as Israel's second-largest trading partner worldwide. The ambassador specifically praised the approximately 20,000 Chinese workers who remained in Israel and contributed to development projects despite the fighting.

While China initially adopted a relatively hostile diplomatic stance when the war began, Beijing never suspended joint projects or regular airline flights. At the governmental level, Chinese officials gradually shifted toward expressing admiration for Israeli resilience – an evolution that may have culminated in the ambassador's remarks.

...

[Edit to insert the archived link.]

Ukraine has launched Mission Control, a first-of-its-kind digital command-and-control system designed to unify planning, execution and reporting for all drone operations across the country, as Kyiv seeks more innovative ways to move the frozen front line on the battlefield after almost four years of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

The new system sits inside DELTA, Ukraine’s battlefield management ecosystem — an operational platform that already connects sensors and shooters across air, land, maritime, cyber, and space domains.

Ukrainian drone crews enter operational data into the system, including drone type, launch location, flight route, and mission task, which generates reports on real battlefield activity, according to officials. The process is meant to eliminate paper reports, facilitating an immediate analysis of battlefield conditions and strike effectiveness.

Mission Control represents Kyiv’s latest push to turn improvised war-fighting into a standardized, data-driven operation, echoing the sensor-to-shooter integration Western militaries have sought for decades.

HONG KONG (AP) — Jimmy Lai, the pro-democracy former Hong Kong media tycoon and a fierce critic of Beijing, was sentenced on Monday to 20 years in prison in the longest punishment given so far under a China-imposed national security law that has virtually silenced the city’s dissent.

His co-defendants, six former employees of his Apple Daily newspaper and two activists, received prison terms of between 6 years and 3 months, and 10 years on collusion-related charges.

A now-deleted video generated by artificial intelligence and shared by India’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Assam state, home to more than 12 million Muslims, has been widely condemned after it showed the northeastern state’s chief minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma, appearing to shoot at an image of Muslims.

The 17-second clip shared on X and titled “point blank shot” circulated widely on social media on Saturday before being removed after public outrage and criticism from opposition politicians.

The video appeared to combine original footage of Sarma handling a rifle and AI-generated images showing him shooting at two Muslim men under the title “No Mercy”. Sarma has been accused of running xenophobic campaigns against Muslims, who form one-third of the state’s population, before state elections expected in March or April.

Local media identified one of the men in the image as an MP of the opposition Indian National Congress party.

The video also included images of Sarma dressed as a cowboy and pointing a pistol, overlaid with text such as “Foreigner free Assam”.

The Paris public prosecutor had requested a criminal trial, noting that some riot police officers “armed with batons and shields” had “repeatedly struck non-hostile demonstrators” who were on the ground or “trying to come out with their hands raised”.

The officers are charged with aggravated intentional violence by a person holding public authority. If found guilty they face up to seven years in prison and a €100,000 (£87,000) fine.,,(..)

Laurent-Franck Liénard, defending the officers, said context was important and that day “my clients were faced with hundreds and hundreds of demonstrators with an extraordinary level of violence”.

The world’s largest shipping line has been enabling the transport of goods to and from illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, as the United States and Europe continue to promote trade despite clear responsibilities under international law, a joint investigation by Al Jazeera and the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) reveals.

The Switzerland-based Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) has regularly shipped cargo from companies based in Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory, according to commercial documents obtained through US import databases.

Between January 1 and November 22, 2025, lading bills show that MSC facilitated at least 957 shipments of goods from Israeli outposts to the US. Of these shipments, 529 transited through European ports, including 390 in Spain, 115 in Portugal, 22 in the Netherlands, and two in Belgium.

MSC is privately owned by Italian billionaire Gianluigi Aponte and his wife, Rafaela Aponte-Diamant, who was born in the Israeli city of Haifa in 1945, then under British rule as Mandatory Palestine.

Last year, the Information Commissioner’s Office in the UK said that it was investigating alleged wrong doing by MediaLab AI, which operates the image sharing platform Imgur.

At the time, it wasn’t clear from the ICO what MediaLab AI had done, only that it could face a fine now we know what the company did, allegedly, and how much the find is for.

As regards the wrong doing, the ICO claims that MediaLab AI failed to use the personal information of children lawfully. The watchdog says that MediaLab AI failed to implement measures to check the ages of users, processed the personal information of children under 13 without parental consent and failed to reduce the risks to children.

cross-posted from: https://ibbit.at/post/173013

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